Glassing (Earth-5875)
glassing Voi and the ruins of New Mombasa, in order to stop a xenomorph outbreak.]] Glassing, formally known as plasma bombardment, is the act where Covenant vessels bombard a planet from its orbit through the use of heavy plasma weapons. The process was heavily utilized during the First Contact War to eliminate humans and their colonies, which are refereed to as "glasslands". History History of the Covenant being partially glassed by the Covenant as a response to the Unggoy Rebellion. ]]After the creation of the Covenant in 852 BCE, the hegemony extensively employed the use of heavy plasma weaponry in order to threaten other species into joining them. The lekgolo were the first member species to be threatened with glassing in their homeplanet Te, duo to their transgressions against orokin technology, accepting peace and becoming the first outside species to join the Covenant, in 784 BCE. The yanme'e and the unggoy were both threatened by glassing, with the latter having their planet, Balaho, partially glassed during the Unggoy Rebellion of 1462. The kig-yar were not threatened with glassing, as they quickly realized the Covenant was all but capable of extinguishing them and accepted to join the Covenant and its ranks, happy for the earnings they could win. First Contact War When the Covenant declared the extermination of humanity, the Covenant used its destructive technology to achieve their goals. The first glassed human planet was Shanxi, bombarded by the jiralhanae-led by ''CRS''-class light cruiser ''Rapid Conversion''. 90% of all colonies of the UEG were glassed during the following First Contact War. , on Reach, being glassed by the Covenant.]]For the following decades, the Covenant continued to aggressively advance in the Outer and Inner Colonies, glassing each one of the planets they found along their way with religious fervor, marking numerous symbols on the planets' surfaces which symbolized "lessons" to be taught to humanity in each engagement. Admiral Preston Cole and his fleets attempted to fight to save these colonies, but despite all of their determination, the Covenant was simply much more advanced, motivated and better equipped to deal with the colonies, and by 2535, vast majority of the Outer Colonies were glassed. After brutal ground battles that the UNSC could be moderately successful with, the Covenant would simply glass the planet from orbit, killing billions. and the Swords of Sanghelios on Mombasa and Voi, as seen from an ONI satellite. ]]The war ensued when the Covenant arrived at the center of most Inner Colonies by the 2540s, with the UNSC still attempting to stop the Covenant from progressing. Despite sparse victories, the Covenant continued to employ swarm tactics and advance through UEG space. Following the death of Preston Cole in 2543, the Covenant was able to advance and glass planets with much bigger ease. Following the catastrophic Fall of Reach in late 2552, the Covenant believed that humans would eventually lose their will to keep fighting and simply surrender to their faith. Ironically, humanity's worst defeat at Reach led to, arguably, their biggest victory at Installation 04, spiraling a series of events that led to the Great Schism and the sangheili's banishment of the Covenant, who then came to humanity's aid during the last months of the war, ensuring their victory. The Battle of Earth, the penultimate battle of the First Contact War, led to the glassing of Mombasa, in Kenya, Africa, as the Fleet of Decisive Worship, led by the Prophet of Truth, uncovered the Execssion to the Ark, buried beneath New Mombasa, leading to the further devastation of Kenya with the arrival of the sangheili-allied Fleet of Retribution, that glassed the remnants of Mombasa and the city of Voi to stop a xenomorph outbreak that had arrived on Earth one hour earlier. Shortly after the glassing, Fleet Admiral Ernst Hood accused Fleetmaster Rtas 'Vadum and the newly-formed Swords of Sanghelios of glassing a large amount of Africa. At the same time, Swords of Sanghelios forces established a perimeter on Installation 05 to stop the xenomorph from exiting it, glassing the entirety of the ring's surface and destroying all xenomorphs still on it. Post-First Contact War After the end of the First Contact War, some Covenant splinter factions resorted to continue glassing remaining human colonies, in efforts to wipe them out. Glassed colonies that survived the Covenant onslaught, such as Meridian, attempted to rebuild from the glasslands, and, under the governance of companies that essentially bought the planets, started reterraforming the planets. Doctrine Kholo at the orders of the Prophet of Conviction.]]The process of glassing is as much of a tactical one as it is religious: once a fleet has been able to again the upper hand against enemy forces, its flagship's san'shyuum Minister approaches the Fleetmaster for their ritualistic glassing of the planet. Before the glassing begins, the Minister performs a religious ritual, naming a religious ideal of the Covenant to be marked on the planet's surface. Before the glassing begins, all surviving Covenant ground warriors are evacuated, and the Covenant begins the glassing by assembling its ships together and target the population centers of the worlds they attacked through numerous crisscrossing orbits in order to ensure the planet's environment effective destruction. Glassing is very taxing, costing numerous amounts of resources and energy, even for the Covenant's Tier 2 empire. The time of glassing wildly varies, depending on the planet and the number of ships involved on it, ranging from days to weeks. Glassing methods The Covenant used two methods to glass planets: orbital glassing and low-altitude glassing. The first method rarely even saw the deployment of warriors to the ground, as the fleet consists of bigger ships. Coming together closely, they aim their energy projector to the surface of the planet and fire it simultaneously. Aftermath during its history at the Sanctum of the Hierarchs.]]The aftermath of glassing leaves the surface of the planet unable to bare life. Duo to the massive environmental destruction caused by glassing, the only way for a planet to recover its effects to an extent is through reterraforming, a process which with current technology, at the bare minimum, lasts 110 years to 300 years. Through the First Contact War, important areas that took the Covenant's interest were left unscathed for later study. After the glassing of a planet, a shard of glass would be removed from the terrain and placed at the Sanctum of the Hierarchs, on ''High Charity'', symbolizing the Covenant's strong faith and resilience at the face of the enemy. During the glassing process, the Covenant would aim to destroy the planet's ecosystem, something that required them to vaporize all bodies of water across the planet. The surface of the planet was effectively dead once the Covenant finished the process, and from orbit it is seen as a series of greys, blacks and reds, with Covenant religious symbols and glyphs marked across the surface, and the air littered with dust and ash. The glass left at the planet take time to cool down, being observed to still be hot on Draco III, even after nine years of its glassing. Glassed planets experience divergent weather phenomena, more commonly toxic storms. List of glassed planets *Balaho (partially) *Shanxi *Green Hills *Biko *Bliss *Circinius IV *Madrigal *Asmara *Hat Yai *Cote d'Azure *Verent *Eridanus II *Sansar *Jericho VII *Charybdis IX *Eirene *Kholo *Alluvion *Kawlang *Bounty *Camber *Endymion *Estuary *Greydowns *Kroedis II *Mesa *Reynes *Ruthersburg *Dwarka *Lostwithiel *Draco III (partially) *Actium *New Llanelli *Skopje *Arcadia *Paris IV *Minab *Meridian *Troy *Harmony *Fumirole *Reach *New Jerusalem *Coral *Installation 05 *Tribute (partially) *Earth (partially) *Shaps III (partially) *Cleyell *Carrow (partially) *Installation 00 (partially) Category:Earth-5875 Category:Military tactics (Earth-5875) Category:Covenant (Earth-5875) Category:Created by Draft227